Obituary Searches - Other Resources

While we are happy to do obituary searches here at the Arkansas State Library, we only have access to one newspaper - the Arkansas Gazette (now the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette) here at the library. For many years, the paper really only covered deaths in Little Rock, so if your relative died in Fayetteville, Fort Smith, or Helena, they are probably not listed. This is especially true if they lived in a very small town in the country.

All is not necessarily lost, however. Many of the towns and counties in Arkansas had their own papers, and the Arkansas History Commission has a large collection of those papers available on microfilm. Using their online newspaper database, you can search for a specific city or county, and see what papers they have available for what dates. According to their website, the History Commission does not do research for patrons, so you will probably need to visit yourself to search the microfilm. If you live out of state and that is not possible, you will need to contact them directly to see if they can find the obituary for you, or if you will need to hire a proxy researcher. Their phone number is 501-682-6900.

Obituary Searches

Obituary searching is one of the many services that the reference staff of the Arkansas State Library perform for the public. We will search the Arkansas Gazette and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for patrons who provide us with a name and date of death. The search covers approximately one week following the provided date. Unfortunately, we cannot do a search without the date of death. 

The Arkansas Gazette archives go back to 1819 on microfilm, and the Democrat-Gazette records are available through an online subscription from 1984 to the present, as well as on microfilm.

Requests can be made in person, over the phone, and through the Ask A Librarian form on our website.

Reference Services: Obituary Searches

One popular service we provide here at the Arkansas State Library is obituary searches.

While we do not have the staff or the resources to do in-depth genealogical research for our patrons, we can search the Arkansas Gazette and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for obituary notices. If you are interested in having us do an obituary search for you, please provide us with a name and an exact date of death. The search covers approximately one week following the provided date. Unfortunately, we cannot do a search without the date of death, although you are welcome to come in person and search the microfilm yourself.

The Arkanas Gazette archives go back to 1819 on microfilm, and the Democrat-Gazette records are available through an online subscription from 1984 to the present.

A couple of caveats about obituary searches: There will be no obituary if the family did not provide one to the newspaper. If the deceased did not live in Little Rock or the surrounding towns, the chances of there being an obituary go down sharply. You may need to search the local paper instead; we do not have any local papers here at the library, but the Arkansas History Commission has a wide range of historical Arkansas newspapers on microfilm. And finally, African-American deaths were often not noted in the newspaper during the 19th and early 20th century.

Requests can be made in person, over the phone, and through the Ask A Librarian form on our website.